Cyclists leave downtown Aspen for Stage 2 of the USA Pro Challenge from Aspen to Breckenridge on Tuesday. (Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post)

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — It’s Stage 3 of the weeklong USA Pro Challenge, and I’m seeing some advantages this race has over the Tour de France. So here are the pluses and minuses the Pro Challenge has with Le Tour.

PLUSES

1. The towns. What? Yes, towns. OK, take Paris out of the equation. I love Denver, but when it comes to architecture, the Eiffel Tower has a wee bit over the Wells Fargo Center. Still, the towns the Pro Challenge race through in Colorado are more scenic. Much of it is because Colorado mountain towns are more modern and richer than ancient villes in France. I’ll take Aspen over Grenoble; Breckenridge over l’Alpe d’Huez. With the Yampa River meandering through this lovely town, Steamboat Springs has a ski pole up on any village I saw in the Pyrenees.

2. Weather. The hottest it has been this week has been low 80s and dry. At night it drops to about 60. It’s absolutely flawless. Saturday’s Loveland-Fort Collins stage is scheduled for 87 but I’m still recovering from the steambaths I’ve experienced in Provence.

A man on a tractor watches the pack pass near the village of
Chenerailles during the sixth stage between Aigurande and Super-Besse in central France on Thursday. (AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)

Reporter John Henderson is covering the Tour de France for The Denver Post…

Coron, France — Whenever I’m in France or Italy I carry one rule of thumb with me like my passport. No matter how frustrated you get traveling, no matter how impatient you are with bureaucracies, how angry you get with your language shortcomings, calm down. You know why?

You always have the next meal to look forward to.

French and Italian cuisines have a way of soothing the most shredded nerves. Melt into a plate of pasta amatriciana or dig into a big pile of choucroute and suddenly you’re no longer lost. That conversation that went nowhere with the ticket agent at the train station wasn’t all that important.

I dialed into that safety net Wednesday. I won’t go into detail but I’ve had a lot of bad days in the Tour de France over the years and that was one of the worst. I was headed toward the Pyrenees and high cliffs and me were not a good match.

But on a frantic drive south from the Loire Valley, I stumbled onto one of those French cafes that draw you in even when you’re not hungry. It was in the tiny village of Coron in the heart of the Loire Valley on D 960, one of the wonderfully narrow regional roads that snake through French villages.

Doubling as a hotel, La Boule d’Or (The Golden Bowl) is a two-story building of soft white paint and green roof and awnings. A brick archway leads to a sunny courtyard where vines climb the old brick walls and locals sip aperitifs in the shade.

I took a seat under a tree covered in maroon leaves and immediately mellowed with a big plate of sliced smoked salmon dipped in a cream sauce of balsamic vinegar, cream, basil and chopped olives. I then had the petit boeuf, a French steak staple but nonetheless superb, especially when accompanied by a mild horseradish sauce.

I ignored the kiesch. It’s awful in any language. But I left as a new person entering a new day. I was in France, and life is good.